Pitt Associate Professor Named Coeditor of AJS Review

PITTSBURGH—Adam Shear has been named one of two editors of the Association for Jewish Studies’ AJS Review, published by Cambridge University Press. Shear is the director of the Jewish Studies Program and an associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. The program and department are within the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. Shear’s coeditor is Carol Bakhos, a professor in UCLA’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures.

“I am honored and excited to have this opportunity to serve the academic community of Jewish studies and help to shape scholarly conversation and advance research in the field,” said Shear.

AJS was founded in 1969 by a small group of scholars seeking a forum for exploring methodological and pedagogical issues in the new field of Jewish studies. With more than 2000 individual members and 75 institutional members, the association has grown into the largest learned society and professional organization representing Jewish studies scholars worldwide. As a constituent organization of the American Council of Learned Societies, AJS represents the field in the larger arena of the academic study of the humanities and social sciences in North America.

“Adam Shear is a longtime, active member of the Association for Jewish Studies. He has served as a division chair for medieval studies, a project director for the Legacy Heritage Jewish Studies Project, and a go-to person for advice about issues in the field. The Review is AJS’s flagship journal, and we couldn’t ask for a better team than Professors Shear and Bakhos to continue the publication’s tradition of excellence and lead the journal in new, exciting directions,” said Rona Sheramy, executive director of AJS.

Shear has taught at Pitt since 2001. Before his arrival at Pitt, he was an instructor in Bryn Mawr College’s Program in Hebrew and Judaic Studies and a teaching assistant in the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of History. His book The Kuzari and the Shaping of Jewish Identity, 1167-1900 (Cambridge University Press, 2008) was recognized with the Jewish Book Council’s Nahum Sarna Memorial Award and the Journal of the History of Ideas’ Morris D. Forkosch Prize. Shear received a PhD and master’s degree in history from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University.

###